1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic tracking camera system for automatically tracking an object to be tracked by recognizing the object to be tracked in a picked up image through image recognition.
2. Description of the Related Art
A camera including an electric camera platform capable of performing a rotating operation such as panning and tilting has an operation apparatus connected thereto through a cable or wireless communication so that the camera and the camera platform can be controlled in a remote place. An operator operates the operation apparatus while viewing an image displayed on a monitor screen, to thereby control the camera and the electric camera platform.
In recent years, there has been proposed an automatic tracking camera system for automatically tracking an object through use of an image recognition technology provided to the camera including the camera platform.
Conventionally, in such a system as described above, it has been necessary to preset, before the automatic tracking, a position on the screen at which the object to be tracked is to be displayed. This position is set by the following methods. According to the disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-074296, the operator uses the operation apparatus to set the position of the object to be tracked on the screen, and at the time of automatic tracking, the operator controls the camera platform so that the object is relatively stopped at the position on the screen. According to the disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-060972, the camera platform is rotated so that the object is stopped at a specific position on the screen of the picked up image after reaching this specific position.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-074296, at the time of automatic tracking, if an actual position of the object on the screen is separated from a position on the screen that is set as the position at which the object to be tracked is to be displayed, a panning/tilting apparatus is driven and controlled so that the object to be tracked is immediately displayed at the set position, and hence a significant change may occur in the image. In the conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-060972, the automatic tracking control is not performed until the object to be tracked reaches the position that is preset on the screen, and hence the significant change does not occur in the image. However, this technology does not involve the control for moving the object to be tracked to the set position, and hence there is a problem in that the automatic tracking cannot be started when the object to be tracked has not passed through the predetermined set position.